ISSN 1463 9696 Summer 2009 • Bulletin No 68 EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN , elections and the economic down-turn

By Liz Fekete

Contents Editorial 2 Country summaries 3 Racist murders 25 I : Why did Marwa al-Sherbini die? I : The death of Suleiman Ismail Abubaker Comment: Fear and loathing in Belfast by Phil Scraton 29

This bulletin is part of a European Race Audit supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed here are therefore those of the contributors. Please acknowledge IRR’s European Race Audit Project in any use of this work. An ‘Alternative Voices on Integration’ project is also being carried out by the IRR and funded by the Network of European Foundations (European Programme on Integration and Migration). For further information contact Liz Fekete at the Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, WC1X 9HS. Email: [email protected]

© Institute of Race Relations 2009 Editorial

June saw elections in Europe for 736 MEPs in twenty-seven countries. But while all eyes were focused on the extreme-Right and anti- parties, the real threat posed by their gains has not been given the attention it deserves. At a time of global recession and econom- ic down-turn, processes through which foreigners and vulnerable minorities are scapegoated and stigmatised for society’s ills have been strengthened. Within the summaries and case- studies presented in this report is alarming evidence that anti-foreigner sentiment, homopho- bia and intolerance are being incorporated into the agendas of mainstream political parties.

While there were notable successes for the extreme-Right, the picture was not uniform. The share of the vote for the Vlaams Belang in Belgium and the Front National in , for instance, declined substantially. But the Islamophobic Freedom Party in the under the leadership of Geert Wilders, made dramatic gains, coming in second in the European par- liament elections with 15 per cent of the vote. Equally alarming was the breakthrough for the Movement for a Better () and for the True Finns; the doubling of the Danish People’s Party’s share of the vote; and lesser, though significant, gains for the Austrian Freedom Party, the Slovak National Party, Greater Party, the Popular Orthodox Rally in and the in the UK.

But whatever the extreme-Right’s additions and subtractions, whichever country it takes root in, it spreads a toxic poison through a rhetoric which blames the global recession on famil- iar enemies – Muslims, Roma, Gays, Jews – thereby encouraging the growth of . There has been a neo-nazi resurgence in the Netherlands, , and Germany. The National of Germany (NPD) now has 176 seats on regional and city councils, and is even gaining ground in western Germany. And where the neo-nazis flourish, racial violence fol- lows. In this report, are details of four racist murders – in Germany, Malta and Hungary - and since going to press a 45-year-old Roma woman has been shot dead and her daughter seri- ously injured in Kisléta, eastern Hungary in an incident which the police are treating as racial- ly motivated. In addition to this, Romanian Roma who migrated to Belfast have been forced out of northern Ireland, and there has been a growth in arson attacks and other violence against refugee reception centres in Finland and Sweden.

What is so immediately apparent from all these examples is the pressing need for unity between all vulnerable groups in society, defined by the extreme-Right as the ‘enemy within’. For what the growth of intolerance and neo-nazi violence should do is clarify the nature of the real enemy we face. Disunity between groups representing the Roma, Jews, Muslims, refugees is no longer an option. And in this respect, the actions of Stephen Kramer, Secretary General of the German Jewish Council, were exemplary. Amidst a deafening official silence against the horrendous murder of Marwa al-Sherbini in a German courtroom, he was the first non-Muslim to describe the attack as motivated by , something that the German government had, initially, resolutely failed to do.

Liz Fekete

2 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 Country summaries

This summary of the background to the June European parliamentary elections, as well as other recent state, regional and local elections, covers the period from April 2009 to the end of July 2009. While it is drawn from a wide variety of sources, a particular debt is owed to Searchlight, and its European editor, Graeme Atkinson.

AUSTRIA he pointed out, started with verbal attacks on Jews. There were also fears in the gay community over the Support for extreme-right Freedom Party grows FPÖ’s campaign. The branch of the FPÖ called for Two extreme-right parties, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) and a law forbidding dissemination of ‘exhortative informa- the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), contested tion about homosexuality among minors’ in an effort to the June European parliamentary elections, with the FPÖ ‘protect our children from sexual exploitation’ and scoring 12.7 per cent of the vote, translating into two warned against ‘self-glorifying depictions of homosexu- seats (up one, and a massive increase on the 6.3 per ality in children’s books’. A new campaign against homo- cent it won in 2004). This was the first European ven- phobia launched by the Christian gay support group ture for the BZÖ, which was only formed in 2005. Its 4.6 Courage revealed that gays and lesbians have a suicide per cent share of the vote was not sufficient to secure rate seven times higher than the Austrian average it any European representation. The FPÖ, which utilised (young people aged 15 to 17 were particularly vulnera- the slogan ‘The West in Christian hands’ during is cam- ble) and the believe that the FPÖ is contributing paign, was condemned for exploiting Christian symbols, to the high suicide rate by fomenting anxiety and as well as singling out Turkey and Israel for attack. hatred. The mainstream parties and particularly the conserv- ative People’s Party (ÖVP), which subsequently emerged President condemns FPÖ campaign advert as anti- as the biggest winners in the European parliamentary Semitic elections, struggling to adopt strategies on how best to On 18 May, the Austrian Chancellor deal with growing support for the extreme right, were intervened after the FPÖ was accused of anti-Semitism accused of capitulating to its agenda. As Sonya Ferker, for placing an ad in the tabloid Kronen Zeitung that from the ZARA anti-racism organisation, concluded stated ‘FPÖ veto for Turkey and Israel in the EU’. ‘There is a serious problem with political debate on Chancellor Faymann told the Daily Standard online edi- immigration. It is entrenching polarisation and produc- tion that as Israel [unlike Turkey] is not an EU accession ing an “us and them” view on immigration.’ candidate, the ‘only reason to mention Israel here is to stir up anti-Semitic prejudices’. That is shameful. We Freedom Party campaign highlights Christian values have no time for such taunting, I strongly condemn it.’ The FPÖ which put forward fifteen candidates, headed by Chancellor Faymann also described Strache as a ‘hate MEP Andreas Mölzer, its previous sole representative at monger, a disgrace’. the , was accused of manipulating Christian symbols and openly pandering to anti- FPÖ president of attacks Jewish Semitism and Islamophobia. The FPÖ was also roundly organisation criticised by other political parties for adopting the slo- Members of the FPÖ, particularly MP Martin Graf, who is gan ‘The West in Christian Hands’. (In previous elections, currently president of the Austrian parliament, have the party used the slogan ‘Homeland instead of Islam’.) increasingly been at loggerheads with leaders of There was more criticism, this time directed against FPÖ Austria’s official Jewish body, the Jewish Community in leader, Heinz-Christian Strache (who is preparing for Austria (IKG), particularly its leader Ariel Muzicant who confirmation into the Roman ) when he had compared the FPÖ’s general secretary waved a Crucifix at his supporters during a rally against to the Nazi . The a Muslim centre. The FPÖ campaigned on the economic FPÖ’s Neue Freie Zeitung (online edition) subsequently downturn, the EU’s Lisbon treaty and opposition to the quoted Graf describing Muzicant as the ‘godfather of accession of Turkey into the EU. The FPÖ’s state-funded anti- -wing terrorism’, accusing him of ‘creat- youth organisation, the Freedom Youth Ring, issued ing a climate of brutality’ by having links to the ‘violent stickers showing a cigarette packet bearing the warning, mob on the street’. The Green party cited the comments ‘Mixed sort – immigration can cause death’. One FPÖ in parliament, stating that Graf had ‘blatantly shamed’ comic-strip called ‘HC Man’ portrayed Strache as a mus- the dignity of parliament and the Republic of Austria. As cular hero fighting against evil aliens from another plan- the dispute escalated, there were calls for Graf to stand et. of Austria politician Hannes Swoboda down from his official post as third president of the said that the comic claimed evil invaders pollute the Austrian parliament. (Graf was elected as the parlia- blood and ruin the society, adding that ‘The Nazis did ment’s third president in October 2008 after the FPÖ the same in Der Stürmer newspaper’. The President of the came third in the general election.) But the ÖVP refused Islamic Community in Austria, Anas Schafkeh, said to support any initiative to change the constitution so statements such as ‘ in the hands of Christians’ that a parliamentary president could be deprived of took him back to the horrors of , which, power. 3 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 There were also concerns that FPÖ MEP, Andreas Campaigners concerned about deepening regional Mölzer, had publicly argued that it had been mostly tensions Jews who had caused the worldwide economic and The BZÖ’s stronghold is Carinthia, a rural region on the financial crisis. Italian-Slovenian border nicknamed ‘Haiderland’ on account of it being the heartland of the late extreme- Archbishop of Vienna warns against political use of right politician, Jörg Haider. (Fifty per cent of the pop- Christian symbols ulation here support the BZÖ). Here, as the Independent In late May, Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph (3.6.09) reported, the extreme right is exploiting his- Schönborn and a number of other Roman Catholic torical tensions between Austria and Slovenia through prelates criticised the use by politicians of Christian the stigmatisation of the Slovenian language and cul- symbols during campaigning. As criticism mounted of ture in Carinthia. Slovenian was effectively banished Strache’s use of the Crucifix at a rally against the exten- from the region after 1945 following bitter clashes with sion of the Turkish-Islamic ATIB centre in Vienna, the former-Yugoslavia during the two world wars. Schönborn pointed out that the cross was a ‘symbol of Carinthia was once a Slovenian-speaking region, but reconciliation’. Strache refused to apologise, accusing after the Second World War Slovenians were deported other parties and the Catholic Church of being ‘coward- and/or forced to speak German. According to Jure ly’ and ‘faint-hearted.’ Zerjav, the mayor of Kranjska Gora, a neighbouring The FPÖ was hoping to make a breakthrough in Slovenian town, ‘I simply do not understand the politi- Vienna, but in the event only secured fifth place in the cians’. ‘They are always trying to dig up old problems and capital with 15.32 per cent of the vote. trying to talk up how dangerous the Slovenian minority is. The current economic crisis is only making things Extreme-right campaign against the Vienna Islamic worse.’ cultural centre The ‘Citizens’ Initiative/Goodbye Mosque’ is supported Extreme right influences mainstream by the FPÖ and headed by Hannelore Schuster, the The FPÖ’s popularity affected the mainstream. mother-in-law of an ÖVP minister who was convicted in Conservatives and Social spoke out against 2002 for offences that arose out of her management of the EU asylum directive, opposed the lifting of labour a charity for the homeless. It opposes the extension of market restrictions on the eight ex-Communist countries the Turkish-Islamic community centre on the grounds of that joined the EU in 2004 and called for an extension ‘noise pollution’, with Schuster adding that it would cre- of army patrols in eastern border areas. ate a ‘parallel society’, and a widening gap between The Social Democrats were the biggest losers in the Muslim and Catholic residents. Asked whether she had European elections. Shortly before the election, Social any problems with being backed by the FPÖ, Schuster Democratic Chancellor Werner Faymann criticised his said ‘I accept their backing with open arms because own party, stating during a TV appearance, that provi- other parties are cowards’. sional branches should have openly rejected cooperation It was in May, at a protest march in Vienna’s city cen- with the FPÖ. Thus, while he pledged that there would tre against the mosque, that Strache brandished the cross be no SPÖ-FPÖ coalition at a federal level, he said he during his speech in which he said someone ‘needs to could not force provincial party branches to take the protect our Austria from these radical left-wingers who do same line. not take people’s problems seriously’. During the demon- In the run-up to the elections, the ÖVP was accused stration six people were injured when left-wing counter- of reflecting extreme-right concerns in its campaigns. demonstrators clashed with special police forces. One of the ÖVP’s billboards, which was supposed to be aimed at encouraging people to vote, showed a defen- Alliance for Austria’s Future sive wall opposite a hedge with the question ‘How open The Alliance for Austria’s Future (BZÖ), which elected should our borders be?’ , who headed the Josef Bucher as its new leader in April 2009, fielded as ÖVP list, also campaigned for Turkey’s EU accession its lead candidate the former FPÖ MP and Catholic fun- negotiations to be put on ice for ‘five, ten or fifteen damentalist Ewald Stadler. The BZÖ hoped to capitalise years’. Immediately after the election, ÖVP interior min- on parliamentary unease over comments made by ister promised to crack down on criminal Strache and Graf by portraying itself as the more asylum applicants through the introduction of new mea- ‘mature’ of the far-right groupings. ‘The FPÖ is not any sures which would help make Austria ‘one of the safest longer the party of Jörg Haider. Fools have taken over’, countries in the world’. Under the proposed measures, said Ewald Stadler. asylum applicants, charged with crimes, would be sub- In the run up to the European elections, the BZÖ jected to fast-track expulsion. Fekter also promised an sought to make political capital out of a fatal shooting increase in preventive detention, with a new detention incident at a Sikh temple in Vienna, with Stadler arguing centre created, probably at Leoben, Styria. that ‘problem gurus and hate preachers’ should not be allowed into the country and that Austria ‘cannot become Fear of crime a factor in extreme-right support the parade ground for all the insane’. Stadler used the Support for the far right also seems to be linked to fear occasion to launch a ten-point programme for more safe- of crime, with issues of crime prioritised in media ty in Austria which included a call for the reintroduction debates in the run up to the election. IMAS, which con- of border checks with is eastern neighbours and the for- ducted an opinion poll, found that the vast majority of mation of a special commission to deal with ‘immigrant Austrians (77 per cent) felt that crime was soaring. crime’. He called for the revocation of Austrian citizenship Sixty-three per cent of those questioned agreed with the from naturalised citizens who commit crimes. claim that the development had something to do with 4 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 immigration. IMAS said that it was notable that those banned neo-Nazi groups like Blood & Honour, are sepa- who agreed with the statement voted for Austria’s rate; but in reality they are linked via the extreme-right parties. (Searchlight May, June, July 2009, Burschenschaften, right-wing brotherhoods founded in Sunday Herald 19.4.09, Guardian 17.4.09, Daily Mail German universities. (Senior members of the FPÖ, such 12.5.07, European Jewish Press 13.5.09, EU Business as Strache and Martin Graf, currently deputy leader of 18.5.09, Reuters 20.5.09, Austrian Times 15, 26, 29.5, the Austrian parliament, are members of the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12 16, 17, 18.6.09, Independent Burschenschaften.) Schiedel is concerned that the suc- 3.6.09, Inter Press Service 1.7.09.) cess of the Austrian right in parliament means that Far-right in March regional elections Austria is becoming a focal point for neo-Nazis around the world. ‘There is a new European right and its core is The late Jörg Haider’s BZÖ took 44.9 per cent of the vote right here in Austria.’ (Searchlight May, June, July 2009, in Carinthia in the March regional elections. Its new Sunday Herald 19.4.09, Guardian 17.4.09, Daily Mail leader is Gerhard Dörfler, who has continued Haider’s 12.5.07, European Jewish Press 13.5.09, EU Business policy in Carinthia of isolating ‘suspected criminal’ asy- 18.5.09, Reuters 20.5.09, Austrian Times 29.5, 1, 2, 3, lum seekers in remote ‘special institutions’ in order to 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12 16, 17, 18.6.09, Independent 3.6.09, protect the local population. Inter Press Service 1.7.09.) In Salzburg, the FPÖ scored particularly well with 13 per cent of the vote (up 4.3 per cent). (Searchlight April 2009)

Dramatic rise in racist violence linked to neo- BELGIUM Nazi scene Significant decline of extreme right While politicians exploit fear of crime, official figures suggest a dramatic rise in racist violence, with Amnesty There was a significant decline in votes for the three International (AI) also drawing attention to institution- extreme-right parties which contested the European par- alised racism within the police and judiciary. Austrian liamentary elections for twenty-two Belgian MEPs. The interior ministry statistics suggest that between 2006 three parties were the Vlaams Belang (VB), Wallonia and 2008 reported racist and anti-Semitic crimes rose First (WD) and the Front National (FN). from 419 to 831. The EU Fundamental Rights Agency reports a 79.5 per cent rise in racist crimes from 2006 VB campaign to 2007 and an 87 per cent rise in anti-Semitic crimes. In contrast to its 2004 vote, when the VB gained 23.2 A poll conducted by the Austrian Times published on 10 per cent of the vote (three MEPs), the VB’s vote in the June 2009, just after the European elections, found that 2009 elections dipped to 9.97 per cent, with the loss of eight in ten readers were ‘not surprised’ by the soaring one MEP (total two). The list of the VB was headed by number of crimes connected with far-right ideology, as Frank Vanhecke, despite the fact that the European a ‘xenophobic mindset has always had a place in the Parliament was attempting to strip him of his parlia- Austrian mentality’. mentary immunity in order that he could be prosecuted for racism. It ran on the slogan ‘This is OUR country’ and How neo-Nazis feed off FPÖ promised to lead to autonomy. There are also concerns that the far-right scene is becoming stronger, and has been emboldened by the FN FPÖ campaign for the revocation of the Verbotsgesetz, The FN in Wallonia, which was headed by J P Borbouse the law of 1947 that bans promotion of neo-Nazi ideol- secured just 1.32 per cent of the vote, a significant ogy. There have been clashes at the University of Vienna decline from its 2004 vote of 7.5 per cent. The last time between the nationalist students association, the it had an MEP was in 1999. Burschenshaften, and anti-fascist students. Left con- () Muslim graves desecrated and Holocaust memorials attacked. Wallonia First In May, elderly Italian and French survivors of the Wallonia First, a new political party made up mainly of Ebensee concentration camp near Salzburg were former FN activists, secured just 0.56 per cent of the attacked by masked neo-Nazis and shot at with air guns vote. during a remembrance event. FPÖ leader Strache ECRI highlights racism in public discourse described it as the ‘foolish acts of boyish stupidity’, adding that the boys should be strictly reprimanded but The Council of Europe’s Commission Against Racism and not kept in ‘custody for weeks’. Days after this incident, Intolerance (ECRI), in its latest report on Belgium, it was revealed that a group of Viennese students had called for a more robust institutional response to polit- been sent home early from a trip to Auschwitz, , ical parties that resort to racist and xenophobic propa- after teachers failed to silence some who continually ganda and warned that the nationalist propaganda of claimed ‘All Jews should simply be gassed’ – in front of the VB was fostering a climate of tension between the a survivor of the camp who guided the group through different regions and communities of Belgium. It the venue. believes that the ‘cordon sanitaire’ introduced by the According to Heribert Schiedel of the Documentation main Belgian parties, under which they refuse to nego- Centre of Austrian Resistance (DOW), the official picture tiate with the extreme right-wing parties, has played an is that parliamentary parties like the FPÖ, and the important role in their electoral decline since regional 5 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 elections in 2004. (Flanders Times 17.6.09, Searchlight liamentary elections, and now has two MEPs at Brussels. June, July 2009, ECRI report on Belgium CRI (2009)18) Anti-Turkish campaign resurrects historical grievances Regional elections see losses for extreme right Ataka’s main slogan was ‘No to Turkey in the EU’, with Regional elections were held in Belgium on 7 June campaign literature carrying an image of the EU stars of 2009, on the same day as the European elections, to Europe, in the centre of which lay a Trojan horse sport- choose representatives for the regional councils of ing the Islamic crescent. Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels and the German-speaking Ataka started its European campaign on 17 May in Community of Belgium. The regional elections were con- the southern Bulgarian town of Batak, symbolically tested by the VB, the WD and the FN, but also by the important as the site of the 1876 Bulgarian uprising recently formed Dedecker List (LDD), some members of against the Ottoman empire. In March 2009, thousands which used to belong to the VB. of Ataka supporters, carrying placards stating ‘No to Turkey in the EU’, staged an anti-Turkish demonstration Flemish regional parliament results in Sofia; they were also protesting against the I VB: The VB scored 15.28 per cent of the vote in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which repre- Flemish elections (down 8.86 per cent),with heavy loss- sents Bulgaria’s ethnic-Turkish minorities (10 per cent es in its traditional stronghold of Antwerp, where it now of the population). Already, in February, Ataka had tar- has twenty-one seats (down ten from the last regional geted the Turkish Embassy for a protest linked to its elections held in 2004). While it is still the second demands that Turkey apologises for crimes committed largest party in Flanders, its losses were attributed to against Bulgarians during the Ottoman period. Ataka greater competition from more respectable Flemish leader Volen Siderov declared ‘We have claims … against nationalist parties, such as the New Flemish Alliance (N- Turkey over this genocide that it has perpetrated on us.’ VA) and LLD. I List Dedecker: The List Dedecker, contesting the Ataka divided elections for the first time, also benefited from VB loss- Immediately after the European elections and prior to es. It scored 7.62 per cent of the vote, and now has the general election (see below), the party was riven by eight seats in the Flemish regional parliament. a dispute over the management of the general election The List Dedecker was formed by Senator Jean-Marie ballots, with several disgruntled candidates leaving the Dedecker in 2007 and uses as its slogan, the ‘common party after allegations surfaced that long-time candi- sense party’. Two VB MPs defected to the Dedecker List dates had been excluded in favour of businessmen, who in April 2007. One of these, Jurgen Verstrepen, used to paid for their inclusion. (Searchlight June, July 2009, head the VB list in Antwerp. It has the backing of Agence France Presse 3.3.09, Noinvite 28.6.09, Sofia Marten Fortuyn, brother of Pim Fortuyn, who cam- News Agency 24.6.09. Additional information from paigned for the party in the run-up to the 2007 general Ataka website ) election. Walloon regional parliament results General election sees more anti-Turkish and anti-Roma rhetoric The FN share of the vote also declined substantially. It The Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria lost all its four seats in the Walloon Parliament, and (GERB), led by former bodyguard and Sofia mayor Boyko scored just 2.86 per cent of the vote (down 5.26 per Borissov, emerged as the largest party in the July gen- cent). eral election, and will now form a coalition government. The election also saw Ataka secure less votes than the Brussels regional parliament Turkish minority party, the Movement for Rights and Likewise in the Brussels regional parliament, the National Freedoms (MRF) leading to its accusing Turkey of inter- Front lost all four of its representatives, with 1.91 per cent fering with the Bulgarian election process. of the vote (down 3.5 per cent). The VB experienced a mas- sive decline, losing more than 60 per cent of its 2004 vote Roma, Turks and retirees referred to as ‘bad human and half its elected representatives. While it still has three material’ representatives in the Brussels regional parliament, it pre- In February 2009, in the run-up to both the European viously had six representatives. While the List Dedecker and general elections, Boyko Borissov, speaking in scored 3.78 per cent of the vote, this was not enough to Chicago, told an audience of Bulgarians that immigrants secure representation in the regional parliament. (Flanders from outside Bulgaria were threatening the country’s Times 17.6.09, Searchlight June, July 2009, future. ‘What is the basis of our population at the ) retirees.’ He then went on to describe these three groups as ‘bad human material’. Far-right results Ataka won around 9.37 per cent of the vote (approxi- BULGARIA mately twenty-one seats) while the MRF secured 14 per Far-right party enters European parliament with cent of the vote and approximately thirty-five seats out anti-Turkish campaign of the 240 seats in the Bulgarian parliament. Another extreme-right party contested the elections, and has The far right and ultra-nationalist, Ataka (Attack), likewise attacked Bulgaria’s Turkish minority. The Order, scored 11.96 per cent of the vote in the European par- Lawfulness, Justice Party (ORJ) won 4.13 per cent of the 6 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 vote which translates into around nine seats. It is antic- Czech government attempted, and failed, to ban the ipated that Borissov will invite the ORJ to be a junior Workers’ Party. The public television and radio also coalition partner in the next government. refused to broadcast its campaign advert. Anti-Turkish themes again dominate Media role criticised Ataka and ORJ campaigned aggressively against Turkish The media, reported Radio Prague (19.5.09) came under entry into the EU and staged protests at Bulgaria’s bor- increasing criticism for errors in judgement in reporting ders with Turkey, attempting to attack buses carrying the far right, particularly after Czech TV broadcast bla- Bulgarian-Turks to the country in order to cast their tantly racist pre-election commercials for two far-right votes. During the election campaign, Ataka leader Volen parties before pulling them amid an angry backlash. A Siderov called for the abolition of news broadcast in National Party advert broadcast on 21 May called for a Turkish on the state broadcasting channel. ORJ leader ‘final solution to the Gypsy issue’ and images of Roma Yane Yanev blamed Turkey for ‘election tourism’ and said overlayed the slogan ‘Stop Favouring Gypsies’. Political that the Turkish secret services were to blame for their scientist Jan Charvát accused the media of fuelling party’s poor showing. (Today’s Zaman 7.7.09, BBC News extremism by giving too much attention to the extreme Online 6.7.09, Telegraph 6.2, 5.7.09) right. He cited the example of the National Party, which probably has less than thirty members but is often fea- tured prominently in the media. The editor of Mladá fronta Dnes, the country’s top broadsheet, was also accused of sensationalism and providing unchecked advertising space for the promotion of racism after pub- Rise in anti-Roma and racist violence as far lishing a prominent interview with a leading neo-Nazi. right contests European elections This kind of coverage ‘lacks information, lacks critique and also is an example of the superficiality of some of There were no successes and notable failures for the the newspapers’, commented Klara Kalibová of Tolerance three far-right parties - the Workers Party (DS), the and Civic Society. National Party (NS) and the Republican Party of Czechoslovakia (SPR-RSC) - that contested the June Racist violence European parliamentary elections. Despite making no in- According to Anna Durin, of the ISN Security Watch, a roads with the electorate, neo-Nazis in the Czech more effective response by law enforcement officers is Republic are having an alarming impact on the level of necessary to stop the racist violence against Roma. anti-Roma racist violence. There have been more and There have been many serious arson attacks in Moravia more neo-Nazi mobilisations, particularly in north and in late spring racially motivated violent attacks and Bohemian towns. But there has also been concerted demonstrations targeting Roma neighbourhoods opposition to the far right. On 3 May 2009, the first-ever increased significantly. Incidents included: nationwide protest of Roma organisations, coordinated I 18 April: Unidentified arsonists turned off water by the initiative Dost (‘Enough is Enough’), against access to a Roma house in Vitkov, a small town in the growing extremism and racial violence took place in country’s northeast, and burned it down, leaving a two- thirteen towns and cities. An NS campaign broadcast year-old girl gravely injured. (ISN 15.6.09) aired on state television in mid-May called for ‘a final I 20 April: On the same day as 300 neo-Nazis marched solution to the Gypsy question’ and described the Roma in the town of Usti nad Labem, to mark the anniversary as parasites. of Hitler’s birthday, molotov cocktails were thrown into the home of a Romany family in Vitkov, north Moravia. The Workers’ Party Three people were injured, including a 2-year-old girl In last year’s regional election, 28,000 people voted for who was critically ill after receiving serious burns. the DS, which has close links with the National President Vaclav Klaus and outgoing Prime Minister Democratic Party of Germany and has sought to target Mirek Topolanek condemned the attack. Roma neighbourhoods for mobilisations. An attempt by ( 20.4.09) the government to ban the DS was rejected by the I 3 May: Far-right activists associated with the Workers’ Supreme Administrative Court in March 2009. (At the Party, National Resisance and Autonomous Nationalists same time, the government also sought to ban the attacked a demonstration in support of the Roma in of Bohemia and Moravia.) Overt Chomutov. (ISN 15.6.09) expressions of sympathy with fascism, as well as the dis- play of Nazi symbols, are banned in the Czech Republic. New programme to combat far-right extremism But Workers’ Party leader Patrik Vondrák was referring to In May, the outgoing interior minister Ivan Langer, the Roma when he spoke of ‘unadjusted minorities’. announcing a new programme to combat far-right extremism, stated that ‘the year 2008 was a turning Targeting Litvinov point on the extremist scene’, with groups ‘attempting The DS appointed Vladan Renak, a foreign language to enter politics and to become a political player’. And teacher at a grammar school in nearby Most, as its shad- the interim prime minister Jan Fischer announced that ow mayor in Litvinov, an area where the Roma commu- he would not abolish the position for the minister of nity feels constantly threatened. In March 2009, after human rights and minorities in the caretaker govern- several DS mobilisations, supported by local residents, ment, as he originally planned to do. The new measures against a Roma housing estate in the northern town of to counter the extreme right emphasise prevention Litvinov, resulted in angry clashes with the police, the through education. City and town officials will receive 7 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 guidelines on how to react to controversial far-right announced that the government would introduce mea- events, while ‘flying courts’ may be set up to enable sures to accelerate the expulsion of members of gangs judges to try the perpetrators of hate crime on the spot, without Danish citizenship after a turf war between drug if prevention proves ineffective. gangs in Copenhagen left two people dead. Police had repeatedly focussed on the growth of immigrant gangs in Steep increase in Islamophobia the capital and gun violence was said to be increasing. Previously, in September 2008, the government dis- ‘This conflict has an ethnic side to it’, said Klaus missed Muslim concerns about a steep increase in Bondam, a deputy mayor in Copenhagen. ‘That threatens Islamophobia, as well as anti-Muslim and anti-Arab sen- to polarise Copenhagen and alienate a large group of cit- timent generally. The Libertas Independent Agency pro- izens.’ (Islam Online 18.2.09, Searchlight June, July duced a report on the subject which was dismissed by 2009, Euronews 7.6.0, Bloomberg News 6.3.09) the Czech commissioner for human rights, Jan Litomisky, who said that while Islamophobia was not ‘a serious problem’, in his view ‘they sometimes provoke these moods themselves by issuing, for instance, anti- Semitic statements’. (CTK 25.4.09, Radio Prague 4,5, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 29.5.09. Aktualne Cz 14.5.09, Guardian 28.5.09, Major realignment of in European Searchlight June, July 2009, Prague Daily Monitor 26, 2, parliament 2.6.09, Czech News Agency 8.9.08, Migration News Sheet June 2009, ISN International Relations and Security Elections were held from 4-7 June for 736 MEPs in twen- Network 15.6.09.) ty-seven countries. The last elections were held in 2004. Voter turnout fell in each of the seven elections since 1979. Prior to the elections, there were fifty-seven MEPs to the right of the mainstream centre-right parties. Now, according to the briefing of the European election DENMARK results provided by Searchlight, the far right has thirty- Danish People’s Party’s vote soars in European eight seats in the European parliament. The full list is: elections I Party for Freedom (Netherlands) 4 I Danish People’s Party (Denmark) 2 The anti-immigration and Islamophobic Danish People’s I True Finns (Finland) 1 Party (DFP) more than doubled its vote in the European I Northern League () 9 parliament elections, securing 15.3 per cent of the vote I Jobbik (Hungary) 3 and taking two seats (an increase of one). I British National Party () 2 I Freedom Party (Austria) 2 Controversial election candidates I Greek Popular Orthodox Rally (Greece) 2 The DFP previously had one representative in the I Slovak National Party (Slovakia) 1 European parliament, Mogens Camre, a notorious I Greater Romania Party (Romania) 3 Islamophobe who once described Muslims as a ‘fifth col- I Ataka (Bulgaria) 2 umn’ that ‘shouldn’t be here’. Its list was headed by I Front National (France) 3 Morten Messerschmidt, who had previously resigned I Movement for France (France) 1 from the party after revelations that he had given the I Vlaams Belang (Belgium) 2 Hitler salute and sang the outlawed first verse of the I Latvian National Independence Movement (Latvia) 1 German national anthem in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens. Another candidate, Kenneth Kristensen, has a Anti-immigration, Eurosceptic alliance formed conviction for racism. Election candidate Jette Plesner A new political grouping, comprising thirty MEPs from Dali used to belong to the Women for Freedom organi- Eurosceptic and anti-immigrant parties in seven coun- sation, set up to campaign against the hijab. tries, provisionally titled ‘A Europe of Free Peoples’ was formed to take the place of the now defunct Union for a Local councillor highlights ‘Muslim criminality’ Europe of the Nations. The United Kingdom In February, Nicolai Sennels, a DFP councillor in Öster- Independence Party (UKIP) and the Northern League are bro who worked as a psychologist at a young offenders the key components of the new grouping, which also institution in Sønderbro, Copenhagen, published Among takes in the Greek Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), the Criminal Muslims, a book purportedly based on conver- Dutch Protestant Political Reform Party (SGP), the sations with 200 youth incarcerated at Sønderbro. In it Danish People’s Party, True Finns, Libertas France and Sennels argued that young Muslims lack respect for soci- Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists. More parties ety for cultural reasons. Newspapers reported the book’s may well join from other countries. publications under headlines such as ‘Islam makes youth According to Graeme Atkinson, European editor of into criminals’. Sennels denied that being a DFP coun- Searchlight, ‘This basically is the far-right “lite” forming a cillor affected his impartiality. ‘We are many from the group, a community of interest, with UKIP’s help – right industry who vote for the Danish People’s Party, but it wingers more of a populist than fascist character. While not has no influence on us working professionally in the welcome, this is probably partly deliberate, in order the area.’ keep the like of the genuinely fascist far right from form- ing an officially recognised group.’ (EU Observer 30.6.09) Gun crime in Copenhagen concerns politicians In March, Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen 8 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 New Social Conservative grouping incorporates Rise of the True Finns extremists It is believed that one reason for the True Finns’ dramat- A new 55-strong social conservative grouping, the ic rise was the increasing focus in the media on crime, European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR), has particularly rape, statistics on which are often racialised. been formed in the European parliament, comprising the Clashes between Finnish gangs and ethnic minority UK Conservative Party, the Polish Law and Justice Party gangs are reported in ways that promote scare scenarios (PiS), the Czech Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the about the dangers of the ‘Swedish situation’ coming to Belgium Lijst Dedecker, the Finnish Centre Party, the Finland. In late 2008, prominent True Finn member Jussi Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), the Latvian Halla-aho used his blog to describe asylum seekers as National Independence Movement (TB/LNNK), and the ‘African gang rapists’ and ‘parasites’. He was subsequent- Dutch Christian Union. ly charged with hate crimes. (YLE 12.1, 16.4, 15.5, 30.6, The Conservative party in the UK was forced to 1.7.09, Aamulehti 15.5.09, as cited in UNHCR Baltic & defend itself from criticisms of aligning itself with the Nordic Headlines, SR Ekot 7.6.09, Euronews 7.6.09, EU homophobic PiS. The Tories say that it is wrong for the Observer 30.6.09, Helsingen Sanomat 24.2.09) party to campaign on a Eurosceptic ticket in Britain only to sit in the highly-federalist EPP-ED group in Summer sees refugee centres attacked Strasbourg. (Guardian 23.6.09, EU Observer 27.3.09) There were a number of attacks on refugee reception centres over the summer and the minority ombudsman said that the number of online hate groups targeting refugees was also on the increase. On Facebook, a group with over 15,000 members, called for the expulsion of FINLAND refugees, particularly Somalis. Breakthrough for True Finns as immigration I 15 June, Suomusjärvi, south-west Finland: Powerful theme debated explosive device set off at the Red Cross reception cen- tre. No one injured but residents, mostly from The anti-foreigner True Finns party, having joined forces Afghanistan and Somalia, offered counselling. with the Christian Democrats, made huge gains in the (Helsingen Sanomat 15.6.09) European elections, leaping from 0.5 per cent to 10 per I 30 June, Kemi, northern Finland: Two men armed with cent of the vote. In the run-up to the elections, all knives assaulted an asylum seeker at a reception centre. political parties save the True Finns signed a declaration A second male asylum seeker was assaulted and thrown pledging zero tolerance of racism and promising not to into the lake at Takajärvi in Kemi. (YLE 30.6.09) promote an anti-immigrant message in campaigning. But the National Coalition Party broke the pre-election party political consensus and asylum and immigration themes emerged as election issues with the government announcing that it would investigate whether Finland FRANCE has certain ‘pull factors’ that distinguish it from other Sarkozy gains from FN losses in European Scandinavian countries. elections In a European election result which saw gains for pres- National Coalition Party divided over anti-immigrant ident Sarkozy’s ruling centre-right Union for a Popular vocabulary Movement (UMP), the Front National (FN) won only 6.3 In May, the National Coalition Party – which is part of per cent of the vote, and now has three out of France’s the coalition government - stated that the country’s 72 seats in the European parliament. Sarkozy’s tough current immigration policy did not correspond to the talk on crime, and promise to oppose Turkish entry into wishes of the Finnish people. It argued for the harmon- the EU, seems to have undermined the FN. isation of asylum policies with other Nordic countries Previously, in 2004, the FN secured 9.8 per cent of (so that Finland does not seem an attractive option), the vote, and had a total of seven MEPS. The Party of the introduction of age-testing for young asylum seek- France (PF) led by , and the Movement for ers and the withdrawal of cash benefits from asylum France, led by , also contested the seekers in reception centres. The Party believed that all elections, as did the controversial Anti-Zionist list that this was necessary to cut down on the number of was accused of anti-Semitism. unfounded asylum applications. But Astrid Thors, minis- ter of migration, pointed out that the number of asylum Front National seekers in Finland was significantly lower than that in In contrast to previous years, the FN, which is facing Sweden and Norway bankruptcy and dwindling membership, ran a low key The National Coalition Party’s stance soon led to campaign focusing on the same issues: law and order, controversy and the party was forced to distance itself opposition to immigration and ‘supranational Europe’ from European election candidate, Kai Pöntinen, who which it described as a forerunner to ‘world government’. placed an ad in the media that stated ‘no more benefit- The party had a different level of success in different scrounge [sic] immigrants’. Both the leader and party regions, with the Le Pen family securing representation secretary of the National Coalition Party said that they in South East France and North West France. The third did not approve of the vocabulary used in Kai Pöntinen’s MEP elected was in the East constituency. On 23 June, advertisement. its new MEP, Professor of Lyons univer- sity, was cleared of disputing crimes against humanity by the Lyons appeal court. 9 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 Regional variations: In the North West constituency, Zionist. This is what I believe and this is what we are where over 60 per cent of the electorate abstained, the going to prove.’ (Searchlight March, June, July 2009, FN’s national list, headed by Steeve Briois and Marine le Guardian 14.5.09, EU Observer 4.5.09, BBC News Online Pen, achieved 10.18 per cent of votes (with 13.4 per 5.5.09, Economist 11.6.09, La Voix du Nord 4.6.09, cent in Aisne, over 12 per cent in Pas de Calais and LibeLille 17.6.09, Migration News Sheet, June 2009.) Oise,11.99 per cent in Somme and over 10 per cent in Cordon-sanitaire prevents FN win at Hénin- Eure). Le Pen’s team also polled 28 per cent in the town Beaumont of Hénin-Beaumont, Pas de Calais (see below). In the South East constituency (Provence-Alpes-Côte Following its victory on 28 June in the first round, the d’Azur, Rhone-Alpes, Corsica) where ten parties put up FN was only just prevented from taking control of the candidates, the FN polled 8.49 per cent (down from over town council of Hénin-Beaumont after all the other 12 per cent in 2004) and took one seat (Le Pen), losing mainstream parties formed a ‘Republican Front’ and ral- one from 2004. In the department the FN lied around leftwing candidate Daniel Duquenne, who polled 12.11 per cent, and in the Provence towns of scored just 20 per cent in the first round of the election Cavaillon and Carpentras it scored 17 per cent and 15 against the FN’s 39 per cent. In the second round of vot- per cent respectively, despite a large-scale mobilisation ing on 5 July, the Left regained control of the town by of the UMP. In Cavaillon it came in second, leading La 52 per cent compared to the 48 per cent scored by the Provence to refer to a ‘re-awakening’ of the party. In FN. Alpes Maritimes it came in third, in front of the Socialists with 11.21 per cent. However the abstention FN campaigns as anti-corruption party rate was over 60 per cent, rising to almost 70 per cent The FN’s traditional power-base is in the south of France in Corsica. and its dramatic breakthrough in Hénin-Beaumont, one In the East constituency, the FN polled 7.57 per cent of the poorest parts of France, in the first round was and took one seat (Bruno Gollnisch). Its highest polls seen as a personal victory for who tried were in the department of Haute Marne, where it polled to capitalise on local disillusionment with traditional 9.33 per cent, coming in fourth, and Aube with 9.13 per parties. cent (fifth) and in another six departments it polled Hénin-Beaumont is a depressed former coalmining over 8 per cent. Its worst score was in the West consti- town of 26,000 people in Pas de Calais, northern France, tutency, where it polled 3.06 per cent, coming ninth out which has been solidly left for seventy years, but where of the ten parties. unemployment is now running at around 19 per cent, Election violence: On 10 May, in Vidauban, southern almost three times the national average. A local man, France, five FN activists, including a 68-year-old woman, Steeve Brios, ran as the FN candidate. travelling home from an election meeting, got off the The byelection came after a political corruption bus and assaulted a cook who happened to be scandal had led to the jailing of the town’s former passing by. During the attack they shouted slogans such Socialist mayor, following charges of embezzlement and as ‘France for the French People’, ‘Le Pen for President’ nepotism that left the council Euros 12m in debt, result- and ‘Death to or Arabs’. The assailants received a ing in big tax rises and the resignation of virtually all suspended prison sentence for the attack and the FN the mayor’s colleagues, as well as a split in the local subsequently announced their expulsion from the party. Socialist party. To make up the colossal sums lost, local The incident was reported in the June 2009 edition of taxes rose steeply and school grants were cut. The FN Migration News Sheet. did not centralise its anti-immigration credentials in electioneering, or overtly feature the FN logo in cam- paign literature, but instead presented itself as the anti- Several FN members, notably Carl Lang and Fernand Le corruption party, with posters calling for a halt to Rachinel, left to form a , the Party of France. ‘robbery by the ’ and ‘France for the The PF, which failed to make any inroads, won support French first’. Marine Le Pen claimed that she and her of other far-right fringe parties, such as the New Popular party were the natural inheritors of the tradition of Right and the remnants of the National Republican working-class, leftwing politics in France. Movement (MNR), under the leadership of Annick Martin. Backlash Minutes after the results were announced, the new Movement for France mayor, Daniel Duquenne, was sprayed with tear-gas by The Movement for France, which ran under the Libertas unknown assailants who fled the scene. Duquenne was banner, polled 4.8 per cent of the vote, dropping from not injured. The FN candidate asked the administrative three seats to one. court to cancel the election results, saying that Duquenne won ‘dishonestly’ by lying about the FN’s Attempts to ban Anti-Zionist list intentions should it gain power. (Guardian 30.6, 6.7.09, The government considered and decided against ban- Independent 30.6.09, Le Point 23.6.09, Libération ning a list of anti-Zionist candidates proposed by the 27,30.6.09, Observer 5.7.09, Associated Press 6.7.09) French comedian Dieudonné M’Bala and including , a former member of the FN. During the press con- ference announcing the campaign, Anti-Zionist list can- didate Yahia Gouasmi was alleged to have said ‘Behind every divorce, there is a Zionist, I am telling you. Behind everything that divides human nature, there is a 10 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 GERMANY Germany’s highest court deemed that this discriminated against smaller parties. Professor Steffen School from Far right does poorly in European elections the University of Rostock believes that ‘The NPD has now gathered a base of regular voters’. Researchers Olaf Three extreme-right parties contested the European Sundermeyer and Christoph Ruf spent two years infil- elections – the Republikaner (REP), the German People’s trating the NPD for their book Reisen in der (DVU) and the La Rouche movement – but none Befreite Zone. They interviewed many ex-members who gained any representation. Meanwhile, the centre-right say that NPD members hoard weapons at their party Christian Democrats, which emerged as big winners in regional headquarters in Jena and dream of rebuilding the election (though turn-out, at 43 per cent, was Hitler’s Third Reich. The writers believe that the econo- almost an all-time low), alongside its sister party in my and unemployment are factors playing into the Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and its ally the hands of the NPD which in some areas of eastern Free Democrats (FDP), made rejection of Turkey’s entry Germany are attempting to create ‘national liberation into the EU a feature of its campaign which also focused zones’ no-go areas for foreigners. on the global recession. Both the REP and the DVU are ridden with internal Growth of far-right violence problems and ran lack-lustre campaigns. The two parties The Amadeu Antonio Foundation in conjunction with opposed the entry of Turkey to the EU and declared that the journal Stern provides a regular web-based update Europe needs to stay ‘western’. The DVU entered into a on some of the most serious far-right related racist inci- ‘Pact for Germany’ with the National Democratic Party of dents that take place in Gemany. In its compilation of Germany (NPD), whereby it agreed to share out some thirty incidents, which took place in Germany in May, seats to avoid rivalry. (Searchlight May, June, July 2009, eighteen took place in Saxony, many in Dresden and sur- Frankfurter Rundschau 2.6.09, Deutsche Welle 8.6.09, rounding cities such as Pirna. A similar picture looked Economist 11.6.09) set to emerge in June, with four out of the ten attacks Far right gains in state elections reported by 9 June taking place in Saxony. The incidents come just a few months after one of the largest anti- In September, regional and federal elections will take immigrant protests was held in Germany in recent years place in Germany, and all eyes are on the neo-Nazi NPD in Dresden where 6,000 neo-Nazis marched in February that in June contested local elections in several federal 2009. states. Surprisingly, the NPD’s share of the vote Experts feel that the NPD is not the only force remained steady, despite internal problems and financial behind the new wave of neo-Nazi violence. The scandals, including having to pay a fine of 2.2million ‘’ or free nationalists, a radical, euros, after senior members were found guilty of embez- political segment of the far-right scene are growing in zlement. In fact, the NPD now has 176 seats on region- number. Due to internal fighting within the NPD, new, al and city councils, and even managed to gain some aggressive splinter groups have emerged, some of which ground in western Germany. As usual it was strongest in are critical of the NPD which is seen as not militant the eastern German states of Thüringen (21 seats), enough. Dr Esther Lehert, who runs a counselling service Saxony, where it trebled its seats (73) and Mecklenburg to combat the far right in Berlin, feels that if key Vorpommern (55), but it also enjoyed some success in autonomous nationalist leaders continue to leave the Saxony-Anhalt (19) Saarland and even the western city NPD there will be more violence in store. And the Federal of Trier. Office for the Protection of the Constitution is likewise Elections for a new regional parliament will take concerned by the numbers of far-right extremists seem- place in Thüringen at the end of August. ingly operating independently. Migrants, those deemed foreigners, trades unions NPD part of mainstream in some areas and Left organisations, and alternative youth organisa- Nationwide, the NPD accounts for 2.3 per cent of the tions have all been targeted. Incidents documented by popular vote. But in some towns it notched up between Amadeu Antonio Foundation and Stern include: 10 and 20 per cent of the vote. In the Reinhardsdorf- I 1 May, Dresden: Masked neo-Nazis, chanting right- Schoena constituency in Saxony, it scored 22 per cent of wing and anti-Semitic abuse, attacked five members of the vote. According to Stephan Kramer, the secretary- the Initiative Courage as well as a passer-by at Dresden’s general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in main railway station. some areas in the eastern states of Mecklenburg West- I 2 May, Pirna: Syrian man suffered injuries to his hand Pomerania, the NPD is now considered a mainstream after being attacked by a man who smashed a bottle of party. Kramer’s view was backed by researcher Olaf beer over his head. Sundermeyer who said that in certain areas ‘You have I 7 May, Pirna: The premises of the SPD, the Linke con- festivals, or public holidays where the NPD gets itself stituency office and the Kulturbüro all vandalised in one involved with the local society’, organising social activ- night. ities for children, and activities in social centres. He I 7 May, Dresden: Dresden Trades Union Council offices said ‘it was pretty astonishing to see that such social vandalised with extreme-right graffiti. work is basically an accepted norm in some parts of I 10 May, Zschopau: Three Iraqis, one Turk and one Germany.’ Lebanese man hospitalised after a gang attacked a kebab stand, with cries of ‘Ausländer Raus’ (foreigners What factors are helping the NPD? go home) and spraying them with irritant gas. Up until February 2008, a party had to win five per cent I 6 June, Brand Erbisdorf: Three youths from the alter- of the vote to qualify for seats on local councils, but native scene attacked by neo-Nazis on the way home 11 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 from an open-air concert. One of the youths was hospi- demonstrators hurled stones and fireworks at a disused talised after being hit on the head with a metal bar. courthouse in Athens occupied by migrants, injuring five I 7 June, Dresden: Three young Socialists identified by people. Migrants accused the police of doing nothing to their SPD bags attacked by neo-Nazis at Dresden’s main protect them. Arsonists, believed to be from the far rail station, who made comments such as ‘we used to right, later torched a makeshift mosque in the same gas lesbians and women’s libbers’ and ‘vote NPD, not area. (German Press Agency 11.6.09) SPD’. There were also clashes between the police and James von Brunn, the 88-year-old white supremacist demonstrators from the Muslim community protesting at who killed a security guard at the US Holocaust the police’s response to the mosque attack, as well as an Memorial Museum in Washington, was linked to Horst incident where a police officer, reportedly, tore up the Malher, an infamous far-right extremist who for a time Qur’an. Towards the end of May, there were clashes served as a lawyer for the NPD. (Deutsche Welle 10, 16.5, between Muslims and the police during which forty-six 10.06.09, Inter Press Service 5.5.09, Searchlight June, people were arrested and fourteen people injured. It was July 2009, Independent 8.3.09, The Spiegel 15.6.09, after this that the Muslim prayer room was set alight, German Local 17.2.09) and five Bangladeshis trapped inside were injured. An NPD campaigns against mosques estimated 400,000 Muslims in the greater Athens area pray in 130 windowless, airless basements or warehous- The NPD has also been organising pickets outside es that operate as makeshift mosques in the absence of German mosques, leading to protests from Muslim any official mosque in the Greek capital. organisations in Erfurt, Thuringia where the local branch of the NPD announced a parade days after the murder of Government announces new law Marwa al-Sherbini (see page 25). Aiman Mazyek, secre- The ND, which forms the government with a majority of tary of the Central Council of Muslims said that the NPD just one, polled poorly in the European elections. Many was trying to whip up anti-Muslim feeling and that it amongst its rank and file are believed to support LAOS’s was intolerable that such an organisation was able to programme and, soon after the European elections, the obtain state funding. (Earth Times 7.7.09) ND announced the introduction of new legislation which would give regional police more power to decide on asy- lum claims, create more removal centres and double the detention time for undocumented migrants from three to six months (with extra penalties for migrants who GREECE refuse to cooperate and a provision for immediate Climate against migrants deteriorates following deportation of any foreigner charged with an offence European elections that carries a sentence of three months imprisonment or more). Interior minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos also pro- Following the European elections, and in particular the posed the intensification of police sweeps in central best result ever for the far-right Popular Orthodox Rally Athens, more border guards to keep out ‘illegal immi- (LAOS), the (ND) government grants’, and closer cooperation with foreign embassies announced a major crackdown on irregular immigration. to facilitate deportation. According to Naim Elghander, It also invited all the opposition parties, including LAOS president of the Muslim Union of Greece, the Greek gov- to attend a government debate on immigration, leading ernment should come up with another solution to the to a Dutch auction amongst the parties as to which migration issue aside from deportation. ‘These people could be the toughest on irregular migrants. need to be able to work and to contribute something back to society and should not simply be left out in the Far right gains streets or sent back to their countries which are at war.’ Two extreme-right parties contested the European elec- tions: the openly violent Nazi party, , and PASOK calls for ‘zero illegal immigration’ the ultra-right LAOS. While Golden Dawn did not man- Following the government’s announcement of new legis- age to secure representation, LAOS scored 7.2 per cent lation, George Papandreou, leader of PASOK outlined an of the vote and now has two MEPs (an increase of one). eight-point plan for zero illegal migration, saying that, because the government had no coherent policy, racism Tensions escalate in Panteleimonas, central Athens and intolerance were growing. Both parties polled particularly well in the Athens neighbourhood of Agios Panteleimonas where large Police immigration swoops commence numbers of migrants live in squalid conditions in aban- Hanasis Kourkoulas of the organisation ‘Deport Racism’ doned buildings parks and garages. Tensions in the area fears the growing influence of the far right on state pol- and other parts of Athens escalated and there were icy. Policing around Athens has been expanded since the repeated violent incidents, some exploited by far-right election and there are more immigration identity checks, parties which organised demonstrations in the area. leading to an increase in brutality on the part of the I 24 February: Hand grenade thrown at Migrants House police. On 12 June, there was a major police immigra- in the central Athens of Exarchia. No one was tion swoop, leading to arrests of fifty-eight out of the injured. 590 people stopped on the streets. Police say they will I 9 May: After the anti-immigrant Golden Dawn, carry- carry out further immigration raids once the government ing banners reading ‘Foreigners mean crime’ and ‘We has fulfilled its promise of setting up a temporary recep- have become foreigners in our own country’, marched in tion centre in the capital. Many fear that the so-called the Agios Panteleimonas area, dozens of far-right reception centre will serve as a camp into which 12 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 migrants will be herded and processed for removal. (BBC unlikely candidate of the far right, as she is a human News Online 9.5.09, Searchlight June, July 2009, rights lawyer, a self-proclaimed feminist (she wrote a Washington Times 1.6.09, Islam Online 28.5.09, Inter book on domestic violence) and won a Red Cross ‘Freddie Press Service 23.6.09, German Press Agency 11.6.09, Mercury’ prize for promoting Aids awareness. According Kathimerini 13.6.09, Athens News Agency 14.6.09) to the Telegraph, Morvai is careful to avoid inflammato- Fears about growing racism and intolerance ry rhetoric and her speeches play directly to a populist sense among Hungarians that they are being treated as On 2 July, cleaners from the PEKOP trades union second-class citizens since joining the EU in 2004. But marched in Athens demanding that the authorities according to Searchlight, Morvai spread vile racist and reopen the inquiry into the December 2008 attack on anti-Jewish abuse on the internet in the run-up to the general secretary of Athens Association of Cleaners polling day. She said: ‘I would be greatly pleased if and Domestic Staff. Constantina Kouneva, aged 44, was those who call themselves proud Hungarian Jews played attacked by unknown assailants outside her home in the in their leisure with their tiny circumcised d…s, instead district of Petralona who forced her to drink sulphuric of besmirching me.’ ‘Your kind of people are used to see- acid which has destroyed her digestive track and large ing all of our kind of people stand to attention and portions of her face. She is still fighting for her life in adjust to you every time you fart. Would you kindly hospital. Police believe that the attack may have been acknowledge this is now Over. We have raised our head an act of revenge for her trade union activities, but oth- up high and we shall no longer tolerate your kind of ter- ers point out that this does not mean that those who ror. We shall take back our country.’ carried out the attack were not drawn from the far right. The party ran with the slogan ‘Hungarian for the Protests are also drawing attention to the ongoing Magyars’ and promised to extend Hungarian citizenship far-right inspired attacks on Pakistanis in the working- to Hungarian minorities living in countries that border class Athens suburb of Aegaleo. There were repeated Hungary. It focused on ‘gypsy criminality’ and the ‘sell clashes between fascists and anti-fascists protesting out’ of Hungary to foreigners. It attacked other political against the presence of the leading fascist weekly parties as comprised of ‘Jewish liberals’ or ‘Jewish Stohos in the capital. Bolsheviks’. According to Jobbik, the Free Democrats and In another incident on 21 June two shepherds were the Socialists have formed a ‘Zionist Occupation arrested after attaching two Bangladeshi migrant work- Government’. ers to their motorcycles and dragging them through the street after going to a migrants camp in Manolada, The problem of anti-Semitism southern Greece and beating up another Bangladeshi The Telegraph was also disturbed to find that publica- man until he denounced his two fellow countrymen. tions supportive of Jobbik’s aims and freely available at (Ekathimerini 27.12.08,

Alarming level of support amongst schoolchildren What implications will Wilders’ success have for In a mock election staged among 15,000 pupils in 140 the government? schools in the Netherlands in the week prior to the elec- How will the government react to Wilders’ victory, and tions, Wilders scored more than 19.2 per cent, ahead of the inroads he seems to be making into the Labour all other parties (the Labour Party was second with 18.6 Party’s share of the vote? Will it seek confrontation with per cent of the vote). Wilders, or will it take up his anti-immigration themes? Finally, Wilders prosecuted Focus on ‘import brides’ In May, Geert Wilders lost his appeal against prosecu- Immediately after the elections, on June 8, the new tion for inciting hatred and discrimination against minister of integration Eberhard Van der Laan inter- Muslims, particularly for comparing the Qur’an to Mein viewed by De Telegraaf said that the continuing influx of Kampf and Islam with fascism. On the website of the poorly-educated marriage partners from Morocco and PvV, Wilders said, ‘It is a political trial. I am being pros- Turkey (whom he described as ‘import brides’) placed an ecuted for saying about Islam what millions of Dutch unbearable burden on Dutch society. The government people think. Freedom of speech is in danger of being was seeking ways of ending the ‘inflow of unskilled mar- sacrificed on the altar of Islam.’ riage candidates because it negates all the energy and money invested in integration’. The Christian Democrats Negative stereotyping of Muslims blamed for rise in and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) Islamophobia welcomed the move, saying that the government had René Danen, president of Nederland Bekent Kleur finally recognised the ‘relationship between large-scale (Netherlands shows its colours), pointed out that while immigration and unsuccessful integration’. Government the foreign media routinely described Wilders as figures suggest that 15,330 so called ‘import brides’ ‘extreme-right’, the Dutch media, including NRC, did not entered the Netherlands in 2008. call the PvV by its name, preferring to describe it as ‘populist’ or ‘anti-Islam’. Anti-Muslim speeches by Geert Wilders calls for deportation programme Wilders and the huge media coverage he gets is believed In a statement broadcast on Danish TV, Wilders said that to have increased Islamophobia, and even the associa- ‘millions, tens of millions’ of Muslims who commit a tion of Dutch municipalities now agrees that the major crime or ‘start thinking about jihad or sharia’ should be issue in many towns is the growth of far-right extrem- stripped of their Dutch nationality and deported. ism. It is also leading to a situation where many Dutch Integration minister van der Laan challenged him on the Muslims, despite feeling that the Netherlands is their grounds that he had got his statistics wrong. (Dutch home, are so fearful for the future that they are consid- News 17.6.09, Europenews 8.6.09, Expatica News ering emigrating. In a poll commissioned by the current 10.6.09) affairs TV-programme Netwerk, in response to Wilders’ European election success, 57 per cent of the 319 19 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 Neo-Nazi scene boosted by Wilders and focus on Muslim extremism ROMANIA In the annual edition of the Racism and Extremism European elections see breakthrough for extreme Monitor published by the Anne Frank Foundation and right Leiden University in December 2008, researcher Jaap van Donsellar warned that while Muslim organisations The Greater Romania Party (PRM), under the leadership were being monitored, the activities of the extreme- of the notorious Corneliu Vadim, made a breakthrough in right went virtually unnoticed. The decision by the jus- the European elections, securing 8.7 per cent of the tice department not to prosecute Wilders for some of his vote, which translates into three MEPs. This means that racist comments, was also criticised. Extreme-right one of its candidates, the flamboyant businessman Gigi demonstrations have grown significantly, and the gov- Becali, has gone from a prison cell to a seat in the ernment’s focus on Muslim radicalism gave the extreme- European parliament in less than two months. Becali is right a fillip. Sympathisers of the extreme-right have currently under criminal investigation on kidnapping been involved in racially motivated incidents, while charges but has vowed to bypass a ban on his travelling negative stereotyping of Muslims was affecting young outside Romania while criminal proceedings are pending people’s perceptions. An opinion poll showed that over so as to take up a seat in the European parliament. 50 per cent of Dutch, non-Muslim 14- to 16-year-olds Becali, a shepherd who rose to be a successful busi- have negative attitudes towards Muslims. Violence nessman and the owner of a football club, used his against Muslims, particularly Moroccans, has increased. money to build churches and is very popular in Romania. The monitor cited a passage from the annual school His association with the Greater Romania Party is said inspection report which stated: ‘Schools are much more to be the reason for its current success. (Searchlight July likely to face “white” extremism and clashes between 2009, Associated Press 9.6.09) native Dutch students and students from an immigrant background than religious extremism.’ (See ) SLOVAKIA Slovak National Party gains first MEP POLAND The extreme-right Slovak National Party (SNS) won its Dismal showing for far right as Law and Justice first seat in the European parliament, scoring 5.5 per party seizes agenda cent of the vote. Led by Jan Slota, the SNS ran on an anti-Hungarian, anti-Roma and anti-Jewish ticket. The extreme-right racist and homophobic League of Polish Families (LPR) made a dismal showing in the dominates campaign European parliament elections, with just 1.14 per cent The election campaign as a whole was characterised by of the vote it lost all its ten previous seats. Another nationalism, with Slovak-Hungarian relations being at once powerful far-right party, Self-Defence, also scored the centre of the main debate. The SNS was accused of poorly, securing just 1.5% of the vote. playing the ‘Hungarian card’. Historically, relations Governing party campaigns for Christian Europe between Hungary and Slovakia have been tense, but after the SNS joined the Slovak governing coalition in But there is little comfort from the demise of the 2006, things took a turn for the worse. Jan Slota is extreme right, for the Polish Law and Justice Party (PiS), known for his inflammatory rhetoric against Hungarians. that was the elections main winner, seems to have (EurActiv.com 5.6.09, Searchlight June, July 2009, Inter incorporated its homophobic agenda. The Economist Press Service 5.5.09) magazine also criticised its use of Christian themes. At a rally in the city of Bialystock, PiS leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski stated ‘If Europe is to be strong, it has to be Christian. And today it is anti-Christian, and especially anti-Catholic.’ SLOVENIA Decline of extreme right No inroads for Slovene National Party This seems to be the last straw in a period of dramatic The anti-migrant, pro-Serbian Slovene National Party, decline for the League of Polish Families, which was the led by Zmago Jelinci, failed to gain representation at second biggest party with 16 per cent of the vote at the the European parliament, scoring 2.88 per cent of the last European parliamentary elections. It was even, from vote. (Searchlight June, July 2009) 2006-07, a junior partner in the coalition government with its leader, Roman Giertych, serving, for a while as education minister. But since then it has declined elec- torally, and despite having fought the election under the Libertas label, it won no seats. During the election, SPAIN it allied itself with the All Polish Youth League of Polish No gains for far right but mainstream parties Families. (Searchlight June, July 2009, Guardian fuel racism 23.6.09) Not one of the five far-right parties that stood in the 20 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 European parliamentary elections gained representation. Associated Press 18.2.09, Javno.com 16.2.09, This could be due to the strong stance on immigration www.diagonalperiodico.net 10.6.09, Rights and taken by the mainstream parties. Freedoms, Number 104 10.6.09, Migration News Sheet June 2009, Think Spain 15.7.09) Immigrants link scapegoating to economic downturn ‘Xenophobia is sweeping the country’ In the months proceeding the elections, and in the face of rising unemployment, the two mainstream parties According to the Movement Against Intolerance, there competed as to which could be toughest on immigration are around 4,000 racist attacks in Spain each year, but with immigrant organisations saying they feared that in still there is no standard police procedure for detecting the current economic climate they were being turned these crimes or protecting the victims. In its 2009 into scapegoats. Fears about the economic downturn Raxen Report, it stated that in the three regions of resulted in the ruling Socialist government launching a Comunidad Valenciana, Madrid and Catalunya, over one programme offering jobless legal immigrants a lump sum half of last year’s racist incidents take place. However, if they agreed to go home for a few years until the econ- racist violence was also spreading to other hitherto rel- omy recovered. Labour Minister Celestino Corbacho also atively unaffected areas (Andalucia, the Balearic visited Bucharest to sign an agreement to make it easi- Islands, Aragón, Castilla & León and Murcia) due to the er for unemployed Romanians to return home. Extra spread of ‘neo-fascist’ behaviour in Spain. According to funds were also made available to NGOs to assist immi- Esteban Ibbara, ‘a wave of xenophobia is sweeping the grants who desired repatriation, but did not have the country’. The only reason that ‘it hasn’t made it to par- funds. The Spanish Observatory on Racism and liament in the shape of a political party yet… is Xenophobia said that statements put out by the govern- because it is too fragmented’. ment at a time of economic crisis fuelled resentment against immigrants. An opinion poll published in March Insufficient monitoring of far right 2009 by the Financial Times stated that around 70 per The far right, downgraded by the police into ‘urban cent of Spaniards were in favour of their government tribes’, is insufficiently monitored, despite the fact that asking unemployed immigrants to leave the country. every year virtually every big city sees a repetition of the ‘hunts’ led by neo-Nazi groups. In the absence of Far-right parties contest elections institutional change, the Progressive Union of Public The website cafebabel.com provides information on the Prosecutors called for the creation of a specialised pros- far Right parties. The European elections were contest- ecution service to handle hate crimes. ed by the Social Republican Movement, Authentic Falange, National Democracy, Falange (FEJONS), Focus on Valencia (FN) and Spain 2000. Far-right violence in the Valencia region has gone on I Spain 2000 is headed by Jose Luis Roberto, a well- unchecked. Political organisations, community centres, known lawyer and businessman from Valencia (where trade union offices, alternative bars been attacked with Spain 2000 has two local councillors). The party is impunity, and fifteen devices have exploded over the against globalisation and immigration and sees itself as last two years. Campaigners say not a single person has similar to the FN in France. been arrested. More than thirty organisations have now I The Falange, headed by Manuel Andrino, is also come together to form the People’s Action Against against immigration and globalisation and campaigned Impunity. (Acció Popular Contra la Impunitat, against Turkey’s entry into the EU. ‘We cannot compre- , cafebabel.com 16.3.09, hend nor accept that in… the EU, there could be includ- Associated Press 18.2.09, Javno.com 16.2.09, ed those states which will never form part of Europe, nor www.diagonalperiodico.net 10.6.09, Rights and of western civilisation, such as Turkey’, argued Andrino. Freedoms, Number 104 10.6.09, Migration News Sheet I The National Front was formed by ex-members of the June 2009, Think Spain 15.7.09) Falange and is headed by Jose Fernando Cantalpiedra. It too models itself on the FN in France and is against immigration. Moroccans targeted by police SWEDEN Migrants complained of increasing police harassment as No representation for far right but violence a memo leaked to the press suggested that the govern- against refugees grows ment had instructed one particular police station in Madrid to arrest a quota of thirty undocumented Neither the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), nor the migrants a week, adding that Moroccans were a priority breakaway National Democrats (ND) managed to secure because they could be expelled from Spain cheaply and representation in the European elections. But this could were accepted by their home government with a mini- be put down to the mainstream parties’ monopolisation mum of fuss. The president of the Association of of the immigration theme. Moroccan Immigrant Workers, Kamal Rahmouni, said that the instructions were not ‘worthy of a country gov- Parties differ over immigration erned by the rule of law. If police issued targets for Immigration was a theme in the run-up to the elections, arresting Moroccans, it would lead to a situation where though there were some surprises. The Christian people were harassed simply because of their physical Democrats opposed the centre-right coalition govern- appearance’. (Acció Popular Contra la Impunitat, ment’s proposal to restrict family reunification rights www.accio-popular.org, cafebabel.com 16.3.09, and called for a more generous attitude towards 21 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 refugees. The , however, called for stricter Background immigration policies, via the introduction of integration In the run-up to the European elections, there was wide- contracts, limitations on where immigrants could settle spread anger against politicians as and withdrawal of Swedish citizenship from those natu- newspaper ran a series of revelations about MPs exces- ralised citizens who committed criminal acts. sive expenses claims. Thus, while the BNP actually scored a lower per centage of the vote in the North West Far-right racism exposed region where it won a seat than it had in 2004 – the The SD share of the vote at 3.3 per cent was down from slump in Labour support meant the BNP’s share of the the last general election, but up from the last European vote increased. While nationally its share of the vote elections where it scored 1.1 per cent of the vote. It was 6.2 per cent, this is just 1.3 per cent more than in needed 4 per cent of the vote to gain one MEP and this 2004. was the first time that its support slid in recent elections. The SD leadership attempted to present the party as The UKIP campaign democratic and not racist. But during the election cam- UKIP now has thirteen seats (up one). Led by Nigel paign, three journalists from Swedish Radio News attend- Farage, its candidates included Deva Kumarsi, who is ed party meetings in major cities, equipped with hidden originally from Sri Lanka and lost his job as a postmas- microphones. Racist comments made by party members ter after he refused to serve customers unless they against refugees and immigrants as violence-prone crim- spoke English. UKIP scored particularly strongly in the inals and diseased parasites that did not want to work or north-west, where it increased its per cent of the vote integrate were then broadcast on public service radio and by 3.7 to 15.8. TV. The party refused to apologise for the comments. UKIP’s campaign sought to cash in on the anger gen- erated by the MPs expenses revelations, despite the fact Violence against refugees that Ashley Mote, elected UKIP MEP for south-east I 9 May: Thirty out of seventy refugees, mostly from England in 2004, was jailed in 2007 for falsely claiming Iraq, said they would leave the town of Vännäs in north- £65,000 in benefits. Another former UKIP MEP, Tom ern Sweden after being harassed outside their apartment Wise, is facing prosecution for alleged false accounting by a gang of between thirty and fifty youths in an inci- and money laundering relating to his EU expenses. He dent they believe was racially motivated. The police denies the charge. denied that the attack was racially motivated, putting it down to local tensions. (Migration News Sheet June The BNP’s campaign 2009) The BNP was led by Nick Griffin, a former member of the I 2 June: Police said that an attack on a refugee cen- National Front who has a conviction for inciting racial tre run by the Migration Board in Karlskoga, Örebro, was hatred, and was returned as an MEP for the north-east arson. Flammable liquid was poured through the letter- area. During its campaign, it adopted the slogan ‘Battle box and lit. The centre is both an office and a residen- for Britain’ and promised ‘the largest and most sophisti- tial centre and there was one family and one single cated campaign in the history of patriotic politics’. Its person living there at the time of the attack. The office decision to use the image of Winston Churchill and use caught fire but thankfully everyone was evacuated safe- quotes from one of his speeches, drew the ire of ly. The refugee centre has experienced other attacks in Churchill’s grandson who called the manipulation of his the past. (UNHCR Baltic & Nordic Headlines 15.5, grandfather ‘offensive and disgusting’. BNP campaign 3.6.09, Searchlight June, July 2009, Karlskoga Tidning pledges included opposing the EU and its ‘dangerous 2.6.09, The Local 30.3.09, Svenska Dagbladet 17.2.09, drive… to give 80 million low-wage Muslim Turks the Migration News Sheet June 2009) right to swamp Britain’ and setting up a voluntary repa- triation scheme for immigrants. Areas of strength The BNP scored an average of 9.8 per cent of the vote UK in Yorkshire. The BNP did well in Burnley (17%), Far right and UKIP make significant gains in Rotherham (15%), Doncaster (12%) and in Barnsley Euro elections where its share of the vote doubled from 8 per cent in 2004 to 17 per cent. In Burnley, where it also won a The anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic UK Independence Party county council seat, its share of the vote dropped from (UKIP) scored 16.5 per cent of the vote in the European 17 to 15 per cent. In Bradford, Nick Griffin’s campaign parliamentary elections (making it the second-largest rested on the claim that Britain’s Asian community was British party, after the Conservatives, in the European carrying out ‘not immigration, but colonisation’, aiming Parliament with thirteen seats). The British National to take over, rather than mix in. Party (BNP) also made its most significant breakthrough Both BNP MEPs attributed their support to a vote in British politics, gaining, for the first time ever, two against racism. ‘This is ordinary decent people in seats in the European parliament (6.2 per cent of the Yorkshire kicking back against racism, because racism in vote). Its leader Nick Griffin was elected as MEP in the this country is now directed overwhelmingly against North West while Andrew Brons – once, in the 1950s, a people who look like me’, said Nick Griffin who said the member of the National Socialist Movement which was BNP victory was vindication of the party’s stance. founded in honour of Hitler, as well as, in the 1970s, the Immigration, he said, had become harmful to Britain, chair of the National Front – won a seat in Yorkshire and particularly with the spread of radical Islam. Humberside. 22 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 Targeted areas council seats: Padiham and Burnley West in , There are twelve UK constituencies (elections are via a Coalville in Leicestershire, and South Oxhey in version of proportional representation for a total of 72 Hertfordshire. The BNP put up 450 candidates, concen- MEPs) and the BNP targeted the north-west of England, trating on , Hertfordshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, particularly Greater Manchester and Merseyside, for its Leicestershire (East Midlands). It also put forward may- primary UK campaigning. In 2004 European parliament oral candidates in Hartlepool, North Tyneside and elections, it won 6.4 per cent of the vote, on a low turn- Doncaster. out of 41.1 per cent. English Democrats capture Doncaster Who supports the BNP? In Doncaster, in an unforeseen event, the English Academics Matthew Goodwin and Robert Ford examined Democrats’ candidate was elected mayor. The English a large sample of those who in the past voted for want every public building to fly the English BNP. They found that the BNP is gaining new support flag, tight immigration controls, devolution and the principally from older, less educated, white working- reunification of dismembered Yorkshire. (Observer class men – in other words voters from Labour’s tradi- 7.6.09) tional base The two authors believe that roughly one-fifth of white British voters share most or all of the Far right pose major terrorist threat BNP’s views, even though most find it difficult to vote Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit has redeployed for the BNP, either because of the BNP’s association officers to increase its monitoring of the extreme right. with extremism, or because there is no BNP candidate to It fears that right-wing extremists may stage a deadly vote for. terrorist attack in Britain to try to stoke up racial ten- sions. The counter-terrorism command, SO15, has also Search for European allies been asked to examine what the economic downturn The BNP has failed to make it into any grouping in the would mean for far-right violence. European parliament. Nevertheless, it has forged links In July, a white supremacist was convicted of plan- with Hungary’s Jobbik group and its paramilitary off- ning a terrorist bombing campaign after police discov- shoot the Hungarian Guard. BNP deputy leader, Simon ered he had turned his bedroom into a bomb factory. Darby, spoke at a Jobbik and Hungarian Guard rally in (Guardian 7, 15.7.09) April 2009, and also attended an international far-right rally in Milan in April organised by Roberto Fiore, once Northern Ireland: Romanian Roma leave Belfast an Italian MEP and leader of Forza Nuova. At the after racist campaign Hungarian rally, Griffin compared immigration in Britain Many of the estimated 110 men, women and children, to ‘Roma criminality in Hungary’ and noted that ‘the the majority of whom were Roma,who were subjected to BNP and Jobbik share similar resistance from the media’. a sustained campaign of racist intimidation in Belfast, have left Northern Ireland and returned to Romania. The Legal challenges city’s lord mayor described the violence as a ‘stain of The BNP constitution bars black people from joining the shame over Belfast’. Over several nights crowds stoned party and the Equality and Human Rights Commission the homes of the families, smashing windows and post- accused it of a breach of the Race Relations Act. Its ing extracts of through letterboxes. After employment practices are also to be subject to legal the violence started to escalate from 11 June onwards, challenge, as European parliamentarians receive an Romanians were forced on 16 June to take temporary annual staff budget of Euros 210,480 to spend on shelter in the City Church (which was subsequently van- employees in the European parliament or the UK, and dalised) and later a leisure centre, after being hounded employment law prohibits direct or indirect discrimina- from their homes in south Belfast, close to the Village, tion. In the BNP’s ‘Language and Concepts Discipline a loyalist enclave. (There were further attacks in east Manual’ the BNP states that black Britons and Asian Belfast.) The Housing Executive paid for the families to Britons ‘do not exist’ and that the correct term to use return to Romania. should be ‘racial foreigners’. Who carried out the attacks? BNP linked to US hate crime There has been much discussion about the far-right sym- There was renewed focus on the BNP’s violent past when pathies of those who carried out the violence, and it emerged that the US white supremacist who killed a whether they were linked to organised racist and fascist security guard at the Holocaust memorial museum in groups. On 15 June, during a rally called to show soli- Washington had attended meetings of the American darity with the Romanians, a group of youths, chanting Friends of the British National Party (AFBNP). The slogans, attacked the demonstrators with AFBNP was set up to raise funds for the BNP from far- bottles and bricks, with some giving Nazi salutes. Both right activists in the US. (Daily Telegraph 15.5.09 main loyalist paramilitary groups, the UNF and UDA, Agence France Presse 22.5.09, New Statesman 16.4.09, condemned the racist attacks and said none of their Guardian 3, 8, 9, 12, 13, 24. 6.09, Red Pepper Online members were involved. However, the Village, the loyal- , BBC ist enclave, has for some time been a pressure point for News Online 6.5, 8.6.09, Searchlight June, July 2009) racism in the province. Since the middle of the decade, County Council and mayoral election results foreign nationals – Chinese, Poles, Slovakians and now Romanians - who have moved to the area have been the On 4 June, in elections for twenty-seven county coun- targets of racists. cils and seven unitary seats, the BNP won three county Police claimed that there was no evidence that the 23 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 neo-Nazi terror group Combat 18 had organised cells in They are collecting far fewer benefits than they are enti- the Greater Belfast areas. While the far right remains tled to, such as universal child benefit’. ‘The health ser- electorally irrelevant, small neo-Nazi organisations are vice could not function without skilled immigrant trying to exploit the upsurge in racist violence and many labour. Our most vulnerable, our aged and our ill, are fear that with the main loyalist paramilitary movements being cared for by migrants. We owe them.’ decommissioning their illegal weapons, a vacuum has been created on the ground which the far right seeks to Racist violence on the increase exploit. As one senior UDA member told the Observer The incidents were the latest in a series of eruptions of newspaper (21.6.09) ‘We have a job on our hands now racist activity. Racially-motivated crime has more than persuading an entire generation that grew up looking up doubled over the last five years in Northern Ireland. In to men who took up arms for the loyalist cause that vio- 2003-2004 the Police Service of Northern Ireland report- lence is not the answer’. ed 453 racial incidents but in the last twelve months The UDA spokesperson fears that neo-Nazi groups more than 1,000 incidents of racial hate crime have are now exploiting disaffected young Protestants. The been recorded. Today, 40 per cent of racist incidents gangs who carried out these attacks, he said were ‘copy- involve violent crime, while the rest are against proper- cat racists’ who were adopting Combat 18’s name to ty. instil fear into the immigrant community. Such groups I In April, forty-six families, mainly from Poland, fled would include the Ulster British People’s Party (UBPP), their homes in the Village, south Belfast, after a series a breakaway faction from the BNP, which had warned of of attacks by a racist gang. The incidents came in the further racially motivated violence ahead. And a racist days that followed a football match between Northern and hate-filled message from Combat 18, warning Ireland and Poland at which there had been trouble Romanian gypsies that ‘Loyalist C18 are coming to beat between fans. The police investigation continues and is you like a baiting bear’, was broadcast by text and email centred on youths with far-right links. all over Northern Ireland. There were further attacks, in the days following the attacks on the Romanians. Police and local authority criticised I A Hindu priest and his family were forced out of north Two teenagers, believed to be young disaffected Belfast after youths tried to break down the doors of the Protestant loyalists with far-right sympathies, have Indian Community Centre, where the family lived, while been arrested. Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde defended the priest’s wife was alone inside. the Police Service of Northern Ireland from accusations I On 22 June City Church, which had provided shelter that it had not done enough to respond to racist attacks for the Romanians, was vandalised and three men arrest- on Romanians. ed. (BBC News Online 23.6.09) In addition, Belfast City Council was criticised for its I Anna Lo, Northern Ireland’s only ethnic minority failure to assist loyalist communities tackle racism in assembly member, was warned by the police of a serious areas where Combat 18 has been attempting to recruit. threat to attack her home. (BBC News Online 30.6.09) The Belfast Telegraph reported that twelve loyalist I On 22 June in County Tyrone a Polish couple with 4- groups from the Greater Belfast area applied over a year year-old boy left their home after numerous racist ago for assistance for community workers to take part in attacks. (Migration News Sheet July 2009) anti-racism training, but twelve months later the coun- In Coleraine, where a Catholic man was killed by a cil had not even considered the application from the Protestant mob, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has led charity, Forward Learning. a campaign to stop a mosque being built. Solidarity and support Legacy of sectarianism There was wide support for the families from political Neil Jarman from the Institute of Conflict Research in parties, trades unions, churches, Amnesty International Belfast, who conducted several studies into racism in and the traveller community. Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland, believes that one legacy of Belfast’s Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, stood beside long history of sectarianism has been the creation of a the Democratic Unionist party minister Jeffrey sub-culture where ‘anyone slightly different becomes a Donaldson to condemn the attacks. On 2 July, a public target for intimidation’. While the number of racially rally was held in Belfast where trade union leaders spoke motivated incidents are increasing, sectarian crime up for migrant workers, condemned the racist violence remains steady. (Guardian 17, 18, 19, 25.6.09, Scotland and called for more resources to be made available for on Sunday 21.6.09, BBC News Online 18.6.09, ‘anti-racism champions in every community, across the Independent 18.6.09, German Press Agency 17.6.09, creeds and the classes’. The common complaint against Observer 21.6.09, Belfast Telegraph 26.6, 2.7.09, the Romanians and east European migrants in general is Economist 25.6.09, Searchlight July 2009) that they are taking away jobs and begging on the street. ‘Whether they are begging or not, no-one has the right to attack, intimidate or hurt them’, said McGuinness, who said that what happened to the Romanians was no different from the sectarian street murders and ‘punishment attacks’ that still occurred in Northern Ireland. Peter Bunting at the rally on 2 July also faced down the ‘taking our jobs’ myth, stressing that ‘migrant workers are filling jobs which need to be done, and paying taxes which pay for public services. 24 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 Racist murders

Germany: Why did Marwa al-Sherbini die? On 1 July, Marwa al-Sherbini, a 31-year-old Egyptian woman who wore the headscarf and was three months pregnant, was brutally murdered in a Dresden courtroom by a German man of Russian descent who declared ‘you have no right to live’. Marwa al-Sherbini was stabbed eighteen times in the space of thirty seconds. It was a frenzied attack, clearly motivated by racism and Islamophobia. Yet the German state and media were, for at least a week after her death, in a state of denial. The press reported it as a neighbourhood dispute, with headlines such as ‘Murder over quarrel over swing’. Amidst widespread anger in Egypt, the press officer at the German embassy in Cairo declared the murder an isolated case and a ‘criminal act. It has nothing to do with persecution against Muslims’. As the funeral of Marwa al-Sherbini took place in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria and attracted huge attention across North Africa and the Middle East, the German public and media at last woke up to the anger that the murder, and its apparent denial, was causing in the Muslim world. On 10 July, the minister of foreign affairs wrote to his Egyptian counterpart expressing sympathy for Marwa al- Sherbini’s family, adding that ‘xenophobia and Islamophobia have no place in Germany’.

Facts speak for themselves Marwa al-Sherbini was married to an Egyptian academic Elwi Ali Okaz who is a pharmacist studying at the internationally renowned Max Planck Institute. Al-Sherbini, also a pharmacist, was suing the man who went on to attack her (formally identified only as Alexandre W) after he insulted and threatened her in a local playground, calling her an ‘Islamist’, a ‘terrorist’ and an ‘Islamist whore’. Marwa al-Sherbini, who wore a headscarf, was part of a legal challenge over this insulting behaviour. In the first instance, a district court convicted Alexandre W for his actions and ordered him to pay a fine of 780 Euros. However his behaviour towards Marwa al-Sherbini during the course of this trial was so threatening and insulting that the prosecuting attorney deemed that he had learnt nothing from the conviction and ordered a second prosecution which would probably have resulted in a prison sentence. At the second trial and as al-Sherbini was finishing her testimony, Alexandre W leapt up and, in a frenzied attack, stabbed her repeatedly while shouting, ‘You have no right to live’. Marwa al-Sherbini’s 3-year-old son was in court and witnessed his mother’s brutal murder. In the bedlam that followed, several bystanders were injured, including al-Sherbini’s husband, Elwi Ali Okaz, who was shot and seriously wounded by a police officer who has now been placed under investigation pending a possible criminal prosecution. Elwi Ali Okaz was initially taken to hospital in a coma but his condition subsequently improved.

Jewish and Muslim communities united against Islamophobia Stephan Kramer, the Secretary General of the German Jewish Council, was one of only a handful of non- Muslim voices in Germany willing, from the word go, to describe the murder as motivated by Islamophobia. Kramer gave his solidarity to the Muslim community and alongside Aiman Mazyek, Secretary General of the Central Council of Muslims, visited Elwi Ali Okaz in hospital. ‘We want to send a signal against Islamophobia’, said Stephan Kramer, adding that the ‘meagre’ reaction of the authorities to the murder was ‘absurd’. Muslim and Jewish leaders were due to meet with the Saxon prime minister and the Intercultural Council’s call for a public demonstration of solidarity with the victim’s family was followed by a public service on the steps of Dresden’s city hall during which an estimated 1,000 people laid single white roses beneath large photos of the dead woman.

Anger in Egypt The Egyptian ambassador, Ramzi Ezzeldin Ramzi and Marwa al-Sherbini’s brother attended mourners’ prayers at the Berlin Dar el-Salam Mosque, after which the body was flown to Egypt for a burial in Alexandria, which was attended by several Egyptian government officials. Al Jazeera’s Rawyeh Rageh, was at the funeral and noted that ‘The local council here in Alexandria, the victim’s hometown, has decided to name a street after 25 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 her and the press is describing her as the “Hijab Martyr”.’ Indeed, throughout Egypt, there was widespread popular anger. While much of this was exploited by the government to feed its own agenda, it cannot obscure the fact that the German authorities have for too long ignored the rising Islamophobia and prejudice towards women who wear the headscarf. Over half of Germany’s states ban women teachers and civil servants from wearing the headscarf which is widely seen as a sign of ‘holding onto one’s own culture’ and a ‘refusal to integrate’. Nabil Yacoub, who previously directed a local council for immigrant affairs in Dresden, points out that abuse of Muslim women who wear the headscarf is widespread. Many women are attacked or discriminated against on account of religious clothing, but do not report attacks to the authorities. Marwa al-Sherbini was different and decided to fight back. She was due to go back to Egypt in three months and, tragically, must have believed it would be safe to take a stand.

Who is to blame? Kathrin Klausing, a researcher on Islamic issues who compiles the website Musafira (http://www.musafira.de/), says that all eyes are now on the prosecuting authority, to see what charges are brought against Alexandre W. She does not see the prosecuting authority, which has instructed the police to start a murder investigation and has described the killer as clearly ‘driven by a deep hatred of Muslims’, as the real culprit. ‘The real responsibility for this awful case lies with the increasingly anti-Islamic and racist climate in society, an atmosphere in which politicians and public intellectuals and celebrities have played a great part.’ It is a view reiterated by Sulaiman Wilms, head of communications at the European Muslim Union, who told Al Jazeera that the murder was linked to ‘public-media discourse’. ‘People are looking for victims and Muslims are sometimes seen as a viable option.’ Both the police and prosecuting authority immediately confirmed that Alexandre W was a ‘notorious xenophobe’. But a week after the murder, another disturbing and overlooked fact emerged. According to Der Tagesspiegel, Alexandre W had asked Marwa in the courtroom ‘Do you have the right to be in Germany at all?’. He then went on to threaten her stating ‘When the NPD comes to power, there’ll be an end to that. I voted NPD.’ Alexandre W was referring to the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) that, in the June 2009 local elections in several federal states, secured 176 seats on regional and city councils. It is in Saxony - of which Dresden is the state capital - where the NPD is strongest, trebling its seats to a total of seventy- six. In February 2009, 6,000 neo-Nazis marched through Dresden in the largest far-Right demonstration in Germany in recent times. Researchers Olaf Sundermeyer and Christoph Ruf who spent two years infiltrating the NPD for their book Reisen in der National Befreite Zone, interviewed many ex-members who said that NPD members hoard weapons at their party regional headquarters in Jena and dream of rebuilding Hitler’s Third Reich. The authors believe that the downturn in the economy and unemployment are factors playing into the hands of the NPD, which, in some areas of eastern Germany, is attempting to create ‘national liberation zones’ – no-go areas for foreigners. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation, in conjunction with the journal Stern, provides a regular web-based update of some of the most serious far-right related racist incidents that take place in Germany. In its compilation of thirty incidents that took place in Germany in May, eighteen took place in Saxony, many in Dresden and its surrounding towns. Migrants, those deemed foreigners, trades unions, members of left parties and alternative youth groups have all been targeted. It remains to be seen what part of Alexandre W’s warped and psychotic thinking was shaped by organisations like the NPD and what part the Islamophobia inherent in public and political discourse - which targets in particular Muslim women who wear the headscarf - has played.

Footnotes Many thanks to Kathrin Klausing in the preparation of this article and to Elliot Perkins for translating the Amadeu Antonio Foundation list of neo-Nazi violence. (An English-language translation of the list can be obtained from IRR, email: [email protected]). Facebook pages have been set up for Marwa al-Sherbini, see Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php). Further information from Musafira (http://www.musafira.de/). Or email: info@musafira.de. The regional employment and integration office, RAA Sachsen, which offers advice to victims of racism, has also issued a statement condemning the murder as Islamophobic. See RAA Sachsen (http://www.raa-sach- sen.de/) or email: [email protected], tel: 00 351 88 94174. 26 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 Malta: The death of Suleiman Ismail Abubaker At the beginning of June 2009, Suleiman Ismail Abubaker, a 28-year-old Sudanese migrant, died in hospital as a result of injuries following a beating by a nightclub bouncer in Paceville and a kicking by at least one passer-by when he lay losing consciousness on the ground. No politician made a statement condemning the killing of this Sudanese migrant, who had temporary permission to stay in Malta on humanitarian grounds. On 13 June, a peaceful demonstration to remember Suleiman and to challenge racism was organised by the Moviment Graffitti. ‘We are convinced that this first death in our country caused by racism cannot be left unnoticed’, declared the organisers.

From Darfur to Malta Suleiman Ismael Abubaker arrived in Malta in 2005. He originally fled Darfur in 1996 and made his way to Libya, where life became increasingly hard. In June 2008, Ismael Abubaker had been involved in a previous incident in Paceville, described in tourist brochures as the ‘nightclub capital of Malta’. In this incident, Ismael Abubaker and another immigrant complained of being beaten by police officers. Four police officers were suspended, and one brought to trial, but the case collapsed due to conflicting police evidence and the fact that witnesses could not identify the offending police officer beyond reasonable doubt. It also seems, though reporting in the newspapers is not clear, that Mr Abubaker had himself originally pleaded guilty of assaulting police officers during that incident, but he had done so because he did not understand what was going on in court and was unaware that he had filed a guilty plea. Although he was to die eleven days later, the incident that led to Suleiman Ismael Abubaker’s death occurred on 29 May 2009. Two French students, Maxim Gault and Clement Majon, who were with him when he tried to enter a nightclub gave testimony in court. They said that their friend, who had been refused entry because he was drunk, was punched by a bouncer with a blow so severe that he was thrown to the ground. After Suleiman was helped up, he stumbled and hung on to a signpost, only to be kicked down again by an unknown passer-by. Ismael Abubaker had been living at the Marsa Open Centre and his friends there, who had no idea that he was in hospital, had been scouring the island in search of him, only to find out he was dead through newspaper reports. Concern mounted when he failed to turn up for his third and final interview with the International Organisation for Migration, as part of his application to resettle in the US. A friend who asked not to be identified told the newspapers that he believed that the hospital should have made more attempts to track down Suleiman’s next of kin or friends. ‘Is there no system in place or is it because he’s an immigrant not much effort was made?’, he asked.

Arrest of nightclub bouncer The nightclub bouncer, Duncan Deguara, was arrested and subsequently charged with causing serious injury, followed by death. He was also charged with working as a bouncer without a licence from the competent authority. Indeed, it is the question of licensing security staff at nightclubs, rather than racism, that has been foremost in parliamentary debate over the death. Following a parliamentary question tabled by Labour Party MP Carmelo Abela, the government announced that it was considering introducing new legislation whereby the services of bouncers would be regularised. Presently anyone employed in a bar or a nightclub can work as a bouncer without having to get a special licence for the purpose. Many individuals, such as police officers, work as bouncers without a licence because their full-time jobs prohibit them from doing such work officially, reports the Times of Malta. But the Times of Malta went on to link the issue of unlicenced nightclub bouncers to discrimination against black visitors to nightclubs in Paceville. When it asked the government what it was doing to tackle concerns over repeat incidents of black people being turned away from nightclubs, a government spokesperson completely sidetracked the question, replying instead that as the number of crimes reported in Paceville in 2008 had decreased by 17 per cent this showed that the increased police presence in Paceville was having a positive impact. When asked if bouncers have a licence to act tough, a spokesperson for the Home Affairs Ministry said ‘As with all citizens, bouncers are not allowed to manhandle, beat or commit any other criminal offence at the expense of another person.’

27 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 Racism in Paceville The Moviment Graffitti said that this was not an isolated incident but there was ‘rampant racism’ in Paceville. It was no secret that black people were denied entry to the majority of the town’s clubs, with those that have an ID card showing that they are migrants or refugees most likely to be refused. Plenty of people in Paceville try to enter clubs when they are drunk, but they are not beaten to death for doing so, concluded the Moviment Graffitti. Its claims of widespread discrimination are backed up by the Times of Malta, which says that reports that blacks or dark-skinned people are prohibited from entering Paceville clubs have become more frequent. In eighteen months, there were six reports involving bouncer beatings that were serious enough to make the headlines.

Sources DI-VE 11.6.09, Times of Malta 10, 11 14.6.09, Malta Today 14.6.09, 11, 24. 6.09.

Further information from Moviment Graffitti, 60A Strait Street, Valletta, Malta. Email: info@movimentgraffitti.org. Web:

28 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 Fear and loathing in Belfast

By Phil Scraton In a personal statement, Phil Scraton sets the recent attacks on Roma in South Belfast in the wider context of persistent anti-Traveller racial violence in the UK.

Over thirty Roma families, including many young children, were forced to leave their homes in South Belfast and within a week most families left Ireland, following several weeks of sustained violent attacks. The police were slow to react and the families were left virtually unprotected. Sports halls are places of fun, energy and exhilaration. They free us from our worries, liberate our and exhaust our bodies. But they are also the first port of call when profoundly distressing events unfold. After Hurricane Katrina they were mass dormitories for survivors, at Hillsborough the stadium's hall was designated a temporary mortuary and, earlier this year, they were short-term home for those made homeless by the Victoria fires. Like churches, they become places of sanctuary and suffering. In Belfast's Ozone sports hall, exhaustion, suffering and fear were written on the faces of the men, women and many young children exiled from their homes by those who wear racism and sectarianism as badges of honour. Families sat amid possessions hastily packed in black polythene bags. Introducing myself, trying to communicate, I choked as people initially withdrew, intimidated by my skin.

Thirty years back In an instant I was back thirty years in Liverpool working with Irish Traveller families. Then, as now, I recognised the barriers of self preservation raised by those enduring the realities of hatred and regulation in equal measure. Involved with the on-site Travellers' school in contesting imminent evictions and in reading and writing letters for families, I was trusted - but these were families that endured daily the direct impact of unremitting interpersonal and institutionalised racism. I visited the West Midlands where, during an unlawful eviction, three children died in a fire as a trailer had been ripped from its jacks. The moment I met the families will never leave me. Johnny 'Pops' Connors described his experiences of surviving as an Irish Traveller in a hostile world: 'my wife kicked black and blue by the police in her own trailer three days before the baby was born; my little son very badly injured and my trailer smashed to pieces; the hospital refused to treat us; the councillors said, "kick them out at all costs"'. Although I lived in Toxteth, this was my first experience of extreme race hate. What kind of men would recklessly evict Travellers, killing their children in the process? What kind of state, supposedly an advanced, inclusive, democratic state, would sanction such acts of brutality? What kind of an investigative and inquisitorial system would deliver verdicts of accidental death? Why did academic research and the care professions seem unconcerned? Nothing prepared me for that experience. The intense odium and unrestrained violence directed towards Irish Travellers that led to the killing of three children; the lack of public outrage or media coverage appeared to condone what had happened. It seemed that by their very existence, by their way of life, Gypsies and Travellers had brought death to their own door. Back in Liverpool on the windswept site of urban dereliction that was Everton Brow, home to over fifty Irish Traveller families, the local community demanded evictions, threatening the use of direct force. Leaflets dropped through letter boxes throughout the area spewed a hateful message: 'Tinkers Out! The residents of Everton are sick of the filth and squalor brought to their community by Irish tinkers. Local councillors' promises have come to nothing. If these dirty parasites are not removed we will do the job ourselves. They are a danger to the health of good and decent families. This is an ultimatum: get the tinkers out, or else.' The city council responded in typical fashion. At four in the morning, in the half light of midsummer dawn, a posse of private hire bailiffs approached the site along deserted inner-city streets. Accompanied by land rovers and lorries, the hired hands were protected by a phalanx of Merseyside police officers. The police encircled the site while the bailiffs knocked up families. Men, women and terrified children,

29 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 all in various states of undress, attempted to halt the eviction. The bailiffs hitched the trailers to their lorries and wrenched them from their mounts. A few weeks later a Warrington councillor called for a 'final solution' to the 'gypsy problem'. Given the genocide directed against Roma prior to and throughout the Holocaust, his outburst was calculated to instil fear within the local travelling population. Roma, classified as genetic asocials by the Nazis, have remained the ultimate, collective illustration of 'otherness'. Even their mass deaths have been erased from our collective memory, their suffering marginalised. As historian Ira Clendinnen notes, Gypsies and Roma remain 'largely absent from discussions of the Holocaust, as they are absent from the monuments which memorialise it'. In this climate of hate the portrayal of the 'outsider' is literal. There is no adoption of, or adaptation to, a distinct cultural identity, no room for a negotiated acceptance of a different way of life. The daily reality of life on Everton Brow was local authority harassment, local community attacks and heavy-handed policing. While men and women defended their homes and families, their children screamed in fear. Six years ago, 15-year-old Johnny Delaney was killed by young racists in Ellesmere Port. He lived with his family on the Travellers' site in Liverpool. Knocked to the ground, he was repeatedly kicked and one of his attackers stamped on his head with both feet. Later he said Johnny deserved the kicking 'because he was only a fucking gypsy'. Giving two young men sentences of four and a half years for manslaughter, the judge concluded there had been no racial motive. This outraged Johnny's father and mother, Patrick and Winifred, who campaigned tirelessly to have the killing recognised as racist. In 2006 Patrick died. One tribute stood out: 'Patrick took every opportunity to challenge the inequalities that Gypsies and Travellers experience in the criminal justice system. He was destroyed by the lack of justice to such an extent that it killed him.' The racism that took these lives is the racism that exiled the Roma this week. It is the racism, alongside sectarianism, that has been mobilised to 'cleanse' communities of all but those who have a shared cultural heritage. We cannot stand by and let this happen. I stood with Jimmy Loveridge amid the rubble, mud and squalor of the Everton Brow site. That day he'd gone to the local pub and ordered a pint of beer. No one responded: 'The fella just looked straight through me.' Naively I asked, 'Did he have a "No Gypsies" sign on the door?' Jimmy smiled wryly and responded, 'No. It wouldn't be lawful.' There was a pause. Then he added, 'he's got the sign in his head'. When politicians talk of generating 'social inclusion' and academics promote 'social capital' they seem oblivious to the experiences of 'outsiders', of what it takes to deal daily with the brutal realities of 'otherness'. That was the fear in the faces of those I met at the Ozone. Racism and sectarianism are alive and well, their currency is hatred and their consequences implicate us all. Phil Scraton is Professor of Criminology in the School of Law, Queen's University, Belfast. His most recent books are Power, Conflict and Criminalisation, The Violence of Incarceration (with Jude McCulloch) and Hillsborough: The Truth (new edition).

30 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 31 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009 The IRR European Race Bulletin is edited by Liz Fekete and compiled with the help of: Harmit Athwal, Jenny Bourne, Norberto Laguía Casaus, Tim Cleary, Rhona Desmond, Mutlu Ergün, Imogen Forster, Chandra Frank, Margaret Goff, Sofia Hamaz, Kate Harre, Trevor Hemmings, Lotta Holmberg, Vincent Homolka, Terese Jonsson, Simon Katzenellenbogen, Richard Kirkwood, Mieke Kundnani, Richard Oliver, Elliot Perkins, Nicole Schmiedefeld, Frances Webber and Chris Woodall.

Institute of Race Relations 2-6 Leeke Street London WC1X 9HS Tel: 020 7837 0041 Fax: 020 7278 0623 Email: [email protected] Web: www.irr.org.uk

32 IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 68 • SUMMER 2009